Emergency crews battle Tesla battery fire in Queensland

Emergency crews remain at the scene of a Tesla battery fire at a major renewable energy facility in central Queensland.

Transcript

00:00 We know that emergency services were called to the blaze just before 8 o'clock last night

00:06 happening at the Bouldercombe Battery Project, which is about 20 kilometres from Rockhampton.

00:12 Residents were urged to stay indoors and to keep respiratory medication close by because

00:16 of the risk of hazardous smoke spilling out from the area.

00:20 Police and several firefighting crews were called and the blaze was contained earlier

00:25 this morning but certainly there were scenes of large flames coming up from the batteries.

00:31 GenX Power, who operates the site, said no one was there at the time.

00:36 GenX Power uses Tesla batteries and they've said that on advice from Tesla and with firefighters

00:43 that the blaze itself is going to be left to basically burn out on its own under supervision

00:49 of firefighters.

00:50 Now the site itself is a $60 million project and it's not even completely operational yet

00:56 so it's only been connected to the grid in recent months and that's sort of at this stage.

01:04 You know earlier this morning we saw dark, wafts of smoke coming out but it has sort

01:09 of died down now.

01:11 Jasmin, what have witnesses told you that they heard?

01:15 Yes, so we've had a Graysmere resident, he said that he heard loud pops and crackles

01:21 from people coming past.

01:24 He said that he saw large flumes of fires in different colours.

01:31 Also said that he sort of kept his distance because he was concerned that this smoke could

01:35 have been toxic.

01:37 Houses nearby are about 500 metres from this site and the neighbours that we've spoken

01:42 to this morning, some have said that they sort of slept through the whole thing.

01:46 Others have said that they've woken up to sort of a bit of a plastic burning smell on

01:52 the site so everyone is sort of staying indoors and keeping careful.

01:56 The Bouldercomb Progress Association, they said it's still too early at this stage to

02:01 say whether or not the community is really concerned on this.

02:05 They say they want to wait until they've got more information.

02:08 Now GenX Power has said they're going to work alongside with Tesla to sort of investigate

02:13 the cause of the blaze.

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